Former Police Chief Says A Conspiracy Cost Him His Job

April 29, 1985|By Lauren Ritchie of The Sentinel Staff

OCOEE — Former Police Chief Leroy Turner says he is a victim of a conspiracy by power-hungry subordinates, changing times and his friendly nature.

Those are the things that Turner, 55, says cost him the job he held for 25 years. Turner resigned March 18 under pressure from City Manager Ken Griffin after he was accused of sexually harassing several women and misconduct with teen-age girls.

Turner denies those charges, saying they were fabricated by Ocoee police officers who wanted his job.

''I fully believe it was a conspiracy. I was told by the police officers close to the people involved that I was framed -- that it was a put-up job,'' he said.

But the officers who complained to Griffin that Turner was involved in improper conduct with a 14-year-old girl said in an interview that they were telling the truth. They said they turned on Turner because they were weary of poor management and conduct they considered improper.

Turner's self-portrait also contrasts with reports by Orange County Sheriff's Office investigators and Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents.

They submitted two cases to Orange-Osceola State Attorney Robert Eagan, one involving a felony charge of attempted sexual battery and the other a misdemeanor accusing Turner of giving alcoholic beverages to a minor.

Eagan said he decided not to prosecute because the cases were old, the victims were reluctant to testify and Turner had left office.

Turner is not satisfied. He said he still wants to clear his name and is considering suing his accusers to ''make them pay dearly'' for their attacks on him.

Details of the allegations against Turner were revealed last week, when Eagan's decision not to prosecute made the investigative reports public records.

In one case, a former reserve police officer told sheriff's detectives that Turner fondled her and tried to force her into a sex act. The 30-year-old woman said she did not report the incidents four years ago because she was new to the police profession and afraid she had little credibility.

Turner said the woman, who was attending a police academy at the time, came to his office nearly every day crying because the course was too difficult. He denied trying to have sex with her and said he didn't know why she would make such an allegation.

The other case filed with Eagan involved a 16-year-old West Orange High School girl who said Turner once fixed her a mixed drink and gave her a beer before taking her home after school.

Turner denied giving the girl drinks. He said she once came to his door drunk and that he took her home because he did not want her ''on the street'' inebriated.

The girl is troubled, and is one of the many youths he and his wife, Shirley, 37, have tried to help, Turner said.

After school last week, teen-agers roamed through the Turner home. He greeted each one, sometimes with a hug, sometimes with an admonition about grades.

Turner said the teen-agers are his friends. As chief, he kept a jar of pennies in his office so his buddies could run to a nearby convenience store for a treat if they were short on change.

He said he had that kind of father-figure relationship with the 14-year- old girl with whom he was accused of misconduct.

But investigators obtained sworn statements from 10 city employees who said Turner and the girl were affectionate in the office, often hugging each other and spent considerable time together behind locked doors.

Turner said the statements are ''bald-faced lies'' that have damaged the girl's reputation.

The girl's mother, who is divorced, said she is pleased with her girl's father-daughter relationship with Turner.

The girl, who wants to be a police officer, denies there was any sexual contact. ''If Chief wanted to do something to me, I'd have told Mom and she knows that,'' the girl said in an interview.

Turner said the five detectives who made the original complaints are his enemies. He said they organized a labor union and blamed him for not getting higher pay and more equipment for officers.

The officers said they acted because they were ''fed up'' with Turner. They said his management techniques were antiquated.

''You can't run a 1950s department in the 1980s. You're hurting the city and the citizens,'' said Sgt. Darrell Cockcroft.

Cockcroft and Cpl. Tony Wilson said that while Turner was running the department, morale was low, officers were poorly paid and training was inadequate. Progressive ideas were rejected, they said. Things are ''100 percent'' better since Turner left, they said.

Turner said the officers attacked his integrity because he reprimanded them for their attitude, improper behavior with women on duty and vulgarity in the station in front of members of the public. They made the same charges against Turner.

His police career over, Turner plans to open a car service store.

He joined the Ocoee Police Department Dec. 9, 1959, when there were two officers. Ten months later, he became chief. His duties included breaking up bar fights, investigating burglaries and mailing letters for some of the store owners.

''Those detectives -- they said I'm too old -- that I'd been around too long. I guess I couldn't grasp the new regime down here in city hall. Every day you go down there and everything is changed. It bothers me.''

But even Turner, once a muscular 6-foot-2, 225-pounder, has changed. Last week his heart temporarily failed, and he was rushed to West Orange Memorial Hospital. He was released Friday.

Years ago the husky Turner wrestled rowdies out of the old pool room on McKee Street that is now a clothing store.

''You had to be in good physical condition to enforce the law in the city of Ocoee in those days. I was strong then, really,'' he said.